swine | ☆

○ chapter 23. ●

CWs: creepy behavior, emotional abuse, physical abuse, slight blood, sexual assault.

danger is so much closer than you think.

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Thirteen years ago

"He wouldn't hide from you if you were gentler with him."

The words were spoken just barely over the dull thump of a knife against a cutting board, chopping slices of meat away with an expertise that didn't come from cooking. Ituko put the rushes of anger that came from his love talking back so much into the raw meat.

Taeko was smart enough to try and extinguish that aggression before it was taken out physically on someone else. God forbid it be one of their children, who were the topic of their "argument." The ravenet had his arms around Ituko's narrow waist, watching him prepare dinner from the side, cheek pressed just slightly against the younger man's shoulder.

"He doesn't need to hide. He knows I'm not going to hurt him," Ituko insisted, his expression calm and his tone, for the most part, taking after that indifference. But Taeko knew otherwise. Five years in this forced relationship with the white-haired man meant Taeko knew when Ituko was hiding his own emotions for his sake.

Taeko just wished he kept that philosophy for his own children. Ituko wouldn't put his hands on them, but he'd yell, mostly at Jonah, and complain when they ran and never talked to him. Taeko couldn't do anything but hold them when they cried. He could never do anything more than that.

He'd only recently worked up the courage to address it with him, and he was in the middle of trying to convince a knife-wielding murderer to be nicer to the children he had wanted.

"He's only four. You yell at him, he's going to be scared," Taeko tried to make him understand. He kept his voice down and his tone gentle, making sure he didn't come across in a way that gave Ituko a reason to get angrier.

Kirai already saw Taeko speaking up as him rebelling. He'd killed so many people just so he could mold Taeko into the submissive, compliant partner he was supposed to be. If Kirai had to remind him of his place once more, he would do so. He would not allow this direct defiance to continue.

"You should talk to him. He'll listen to you," Kirai suggested, brushing off Taeko's embrace so he could wash the knife off at the sink. Kirai saw through the affection as a sign of fear. A fear that Kirai's anger, if not dulled into a black stain on dead grass, would spread like a wildfire, burning anyone who got too close.

Kirai didn't mind the absence of any positive emotion, despite the otherwise loving touch. Kirai just liked Taeko's hands on him, even if it was only to keep Kirai's off of him.

"He'd listen to you, too, if you spoke to him instead of yelled." Taeko's voice lost strength as he continued, as if he was afraid of every word. It was cute. Even with the idea that he could go against Kirai without any repercussion in his pretty little head, he was still scared of him, deep down. Kirai would test that. Bring that fear out.

Kirai picked up the cutting board and placed it on the other side of the sink. Taeko eyed him warily, but looked away the moment Kirai returned his gaze. Taeko decided to instead watch as Kirai turned the running water hot with a turn of the sink's lever.

In seconds, the dampened knife was pressed against Taeko's throat. A warning, nothing more. Kirai got the reaction he wanted, the ravenet flinching back and falling silent. With his back now pressed against the counter, Kirai moved to keep him there, and he dragged the knife past his collarbone and down his arm.